Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hi guru-guys,

I need a bit of creative help on this issue. I am approaching a former employer of mine who is a hard-sell, cold-calling, face2face insurance and investment broking firm from Hongkong with offices in China.

Background: this broker is the best in terms of products quality, reliability and customer service. However, competition is tough and their marketing strategy is exclusively based on cold-calling, networking and referrals(they do have a website but it ranks very poorly and it has very few, remote results in google both by searching the company name and specific terms related to its business).

Could you advise some PR ideas to generate buzz and direct-response? Though insurance is only bought once a year at a specific date, I believe that PR can increase a lot brand awareness and sales for them. For the moment I came up with the following:

Press releases:
News about either the company's news or insurance related topics to media for foreigners in China.

Co-marketing w/:
relocation companies
international schools
international clinics

Expert proposal w/:
chambers of commerce magazines
trade publications
local/foreign media (on/offline)

Events:
Public speaking w/chambers of commerce

Ideas:
1-year policy price-draw

Website
Website optimization
SEO

WEB2.0.
Expert on the laowai(expatriates) blogsphere
Blogsphere monitoring and response

Any input is highly appreciated.

Also, how would you charge such an account? I am pretty confident that engaging in these activities will pull many good leads, but I'm not sure how to approach them on the fee issue. For the moment I thought of a low retainer and a sort of performance-based remuneration based on % increase of leads and commissions from signed contracts. Does it sound reasonable? How could it otherwise be?

I look forward to hearing what you think.

Davide